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Maximilian Schele De Vere (1820–1898)

Maximilian Schele De Vere was a
professor of modern languages at the University
of Virginia and a founding member of the American Philological Society. Born
in Sweden, likely with the surname von Scheele, he later changed his name, possibly
after marrying an Irish woman named De Vere. After studying languages in Germany,
Schele De Vere edited a German-language newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and
then studied Greek at Harvard. In 1844, he joined the faculty at the University of
Virginia, teaching there for more than fifty years. He supported the Confederacy
during the American Civil War
(1861–1865), serving as captain of a home guard unit. Before and after the war he published
regularly, including translations, collections of essays, and textbooks. He resigned
his teaching position in 1895 amid accusations he had sent libelous letters to
another professor and the chair of the faculty. He also may have become addicted to
morphine taken to control back pain. Schele De Vere died in Washington, D.C., in
1898. MORE...

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Early Years

Maximilian Rudolph Schele De Vere was born on November 1, 1820, probably in Växjö,
Sweden. He may have been the son of Johanna Wilhelmina Eggers von Scheele and
Christian Benjamin von Scheele, an officer in the Swedish army whose family was
from Pomerania, a Prussian province on the Baltic Sea. According to the Handbuch des Preussischen Adels (1893), his baptismal name
was Rudolf Ludolf Friedrich Karl Maximilian von Scheele. He spent part of his
childhood in Silesia, a Prussian province that later became part of Poland, where
he learned the Slavic language. He studied at the University of Bonn and at the
University of Berlin, from which he received a doctorate in 1841. The University
of Greifswald granted him a Doctor of Civil and Canon Law the following year.

Von Scheele saw military service in Prussia
and possibly in Algiers and worked as a clerk in the civil service of the Prussian
government before serving as an attaché, possibly at the embassy at Saint
Petersburg, Russia. He may have married an Irish woman named Maud De Vere. About
the time he moved to the United States in 1842, he adopted the surname Schele De
Vere. From 1842 to 1844 Schele De Vere worked in Philadelphia as an editor of Die Alte und Neue Welt, a German-language weekly, and in
1843 took part in founding the Deutsche Einwanderungsgesellschaft zu Philadelphia.
In 1844 he moved to Boston, where he studied modern Greek at Harvard and joined
the distinguished literary circle around Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and George
Ticknor.

At the University of Virginia

In September 1844, with recommendations from Longfellow, other notable Bostonians,
and the Prussian consul general in Baltimore, Schele De Vere accepted an
invitation to become professor of modern languages at the University of Virginia.
He initially taught Anglo-Saxon as the root of modern English, and French, German,
Spanish, and Italian, along with the literature and political history of each
nation. On July 25, 1849, he married Eliza Wydown Rives, the daughter of Alexander Rives, who served
on the Virginia
Supreme Court of Appeals and as a federal judge after the Civil War. She
was also the niece of William
Cabell Rives, who was twice minister to France and served in both the
U.S. Congress and
Confederate
Congress. She died on July 20, 1851, following the birth of a daughter
who lived twelve years.

During the 1856–1857 academic year, 241 out
of 645 students at the University of Virginia attended Schele De Vere's classes in
modern languages. He was a popular teacher who was once described as being a Swede
by birth, a Prussian by allegiance, and a cultivated Frenchman in appearance. Each
year from 1851 to 1861 Schele De Vere had as many as three assistants, two of whom
were Germans. In 1853 he published Outlines of Comparative
Philology and the following year published Grammar of
the Spanish Language, with a History of the Language,
and Practical Exercises. His book of essays on natural history subjects
entitled Stray Leaves from the Book of Nature appeared in
1855. Schele De Vere married his wife's younger sister, Lucy Brown Rives, on March
21, 1860. They had no children. Soon after arriving in Virginia he had acquired
two slaves and in 1860 paid taxes on four enslaved laborers older than age
sixteen.

In March 1861, before Virginia seceded from the United
States, he described himself as a supporter of the Union, but during the Civil War he
served as captain of a home guard company. The university faculty granted Schele
De Vere leave of absence to travel to Europe in April 1863 to assist the
Confederacy. One faculty member, George Frederick Holmes, wrote a confidential letter to the secretary of
state that contained vague criticisms of Schele De Vere, which may have dissuaded
the government from taking advantage of his knowledge of European languages, even
though Schele De Vere offered his services to the Confederacy. During the war he
assisted at least one native German to travel from Virginia to Northern
states.

Schele De Vere may have resided in Italy for a
brief time after the war but soon returned to Virginia and resumed his
professorship. He was one of the eighty-four students of language who in July 1869
founded the American Philological Association. He translated into English and in
1869 published Friedrich Spielhagen's novels Problematic
Characters and Through Night to Light and in 1870
The Hohensteins. Schele De Vere also edited an
illustrated edition of Xavier Boniface Saintine's Myths of the Rhine and two volumes of the Illustrated Library of Wonders. He continued to publish textbooks on
language, including Studies in English; Or, Glimpses of the
Inner Life of Our Language and First French Reader: For
Beginners, both in 1867, Introduction to the Study of
French in 1870, Americanisms: The English of the New
World in 1872, and The French Verb: A New, Clear and
Easy Method for the Study of the French Verb in 1891.

Schele De Vere also wrote many articles on a variety of subjects for national
journals during the 1870s and 1880s. He published another volume of natural
history essays entitled Wonders of the Deep in 1869, and in
1870 he published a book entitled The Great Empress: A
Portrait on the Roman Agrippina. The Romance of American
History: Early Annals appeared in 1872 and a volume on the occult, Modern Magic the following year.

Later Years

For many years Schele De Vere was the only instructor in the school of modern
languages, and he continued to teach Anglo-Saxon, Spanish, and Italian after he
gained an assistant late in the 1880s and relinquished the classes in French and
German. In 1894, on the fiftieth anniversary of his appointment, colleagues and
former students presented Schele De Vere a large silver punch bowl lined with gold
and a matching ladle in a handsome oak case trimmed with brass and inscribed with
a dedication and accompanied by a letter of congratulation in recognition of his
distinguished service.

Amid a university investigation into two libelous letters he reportedly sent to
another professor and the chair of the faculty, Schele De Vere resigned on March
29, 1895, after fifty years of teaching. Reports that he had become addicted to
morphine that he took to control back pain may have reduced his effectiveness and
popularity during his final years on the faculty. Schele De Vere moved to
Washington, D.C., where he died on May 12, 1898. He was buried in the city's Rock
Creek Cemetery, where his widow, who died the following July 9, was also
buried.

Major Works

Outlines of Comparative Philology (1853)

Grammar of the Spanish Language, with a History of the
Language, and Practical Exercises (1854)

Stray Leaves from the Book of Nature (1855)

Studies in English; Or, Glimpses of the Inner Life of Our
Language (1867)

July 20, 1851
- Eliza Rives Schele De Vere, the wife of Maximilian Schele de Vere, dies following the birth of a daughter.

March 21, 1860
- Maximilian Schele De Vere and Lucy Brown Rives, the younger sister of Schele De Vere's deceased wife, marry. They will have no children.

April 1863
- Maximilian Schele De Vere takes a leave of absence from the University of Virginia to travel to Europe to assist the Confederacy.

July 6, 1869
- Maximilian Schele De Vere and eighty-three other students of language found the American Philological Association.

1894
- Students at the University of Virginia present Maximilian Schele De Vere a large silver punch bowl and ladle in an oak case on the fiftieth anniversary of his teaching appointment.

March 29, 1895
- Maximilian Schele De Vere resigns his position at the University of Virginia amid an investigation into two libelous letters he reportedly sent to another professor and the chair of the faculty.

May 12, 1898
- Maximilian Schele De Vere dies in Washington, D.C. He is buried in the city's Rock Creek Cemetery.

July 9, 1898
- Lucy Rives Schele De Vere, the widow of Maximilian Schele De Vere, dies. She is buried in Rock Creek Cemetery, in Washington, D.C.